POET’S WIDOW SEEKS WORK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 7

POET’S WIDOW SEEKS WORK

POST AS HOUSEKEEPER The widow. of Sir William Watson, the poet, who died on August 12, is seeking work as housekeeper, and she is also anxious to find employment for her two daughters. In her cottage at Rottingdean, near Brighton, Lady Watson told a press representative of her aims. “I wanted to feel,” she said, “that the remainder of my life will not be wasted, because there will not be enough for us to live on when the estate is settled and we must find work of some kind. “ My two daughters, who are 22 and 19, do not want to leave me, and our hope is for work which will not separate us. I should like to become a house-keeper-secretary to somebody, or a caretaker where I could make a home and where in my spare time I could write the story of my husband’s life. My elder daughter has worked as housekeeper and the younger was working before my husband died. Both came home to me when I lost him. “We have registered our names at several Brighton registry offices in the name of plain ‘Mrs Watson.’ We have had some very nice places offered to us already, but at each one it would have meant separation between by daughters and I. “ What I should like best of all is caretaker of Pepys House, at Hampstead. Widows of literary men should get opportunities of thaf kind, such as looking after buildings under the care of the National Trust. We could lookafter them and explain everything to visitors, and I would have an opportunity of writing my husband’s life in pi easant sn n oun dings.” Sir William Watson was assisted in his later days by a Civil List pension of £2OO a year and by a fund of £3920 which eminent men and women sponsored.